Doing more with less: Capturing digital opportunity with IP video distribution
The age-old adage of doing more with less has never been as relevant, or as important, as it is today. Rapid evolution in consumer demand and global economic challenges are putting the squeeze on Tier 1 media companies that have been the leading players for as long as television has existed. Businesses that have successfully navigated significant shifts in technology and viewer behavior over many decades are now facing transformational challenges that will dictate their long-term future.
The proliferation of content and growing number of streaming platforms means that today, viewers can access media wherever, whenever, and however they prefer. Due to this game-changing evolution in consumer behavior, major broadcasters are pushing to reach more audiences, both globally and hyperlocally, with customized content and live event experiences across more platforms than ever before.
Today, we find ourselves at a pivotal inflection point for media where big-picture technology and business decisions will define the winners and losers in the market. So, which of those decisions can really help an organization successfully do more with less and compete in the digital age?
Capturing digital opportunity with intelligent technology investment
Major players are aware of the pace of change in our industry. Success in the digital age requires scalable distribution technologies that enable you to bring your best live content to a fast-growing ecosystem of digital platforms, satisfying diverse audience and downstream platform requirements to maximize reach and engagement. Surging viewer demands for more flavors of video content and the near-ubiquitous availability of connected devices are pushing to the forefront new technologies and business models that enable greater scale and proliferation of linear channels and live events, with fewer operational resources. Pivoting away from large capital expenditure (CapEx) investments, in building and managing in-house technology infrastructure, toward a more nimble, operational expenditure (OpEX) focused model is a critical step.
The traditional business rationale of amortizing heavy technology investment across a handful of long-established linear channels broadcast to millions of people is long behind us. Audiences are too fragmented, and broadcasters need to quickly deliver more tailored content versions to untapped geographies and new and emerging platforms. This need for rapid time-to-market and flexibility makes fixed operating expenses, as part of a managed services model, a better option than building and running your own infrastructure. Aside from maintenance, management, and resourcing costs, the risks of investing in deep technology stacks that could become obsolete in a few years are just too great.
IP video distribution is here and now — and it’s powering new possibilities
Satellite distribution was, for a long time, the primary way to deliver live video content at broadcast quality to global audiences. However, the development of ultra-reliable, managed IP network architecture, like the LTN Network, changed the status quo. Today, our fully managed, multicast-enabled IP video distribution solution is trusted by Tier 1 broadcast organizations and digital-native players around the world to deliver full-time channels and live events to traditional, streaming, and FAST platforms with 99.999% reliability and <300ms latency worldwide.
However, innovation in IP video distribution isn’t just about discovering a reliable, acceptable alternative to legacy broadcast distribution. It goes hand in hand with an entirely new set of interconnected, automated technologies that empower content creators to scale with fewer resources, be more creative, and bring high-value live content to new digital frontiers with greater customization and monetization. Years of deep innovation and a future-centric mindset have brought the underlying LTN Network to where it is today — and it continues to grow at tremendous pace. Media companies that embrace a bedrock of proven IP network technology can harness a new breed of uniquely interwoven tools to create, customize, version, and deliver premier live content at an unprecedented scale — and with unparalleled efficiency. From tying together complex and disparate channel creation, ad insertion, and playout workflows, to tailoring live events across regions with culturally relevant, hyper-local advertising, we’re now beginning to see the true potential of what major players can do with a powerful ecosystem of overlaying technology that enables greater reach, deeper engagement, and higher revenues. The story is only just getting interesting.
Powering live broadcasting revenue
While new IP video distribution methodologies have matured and bold, aggressive competitors have emerged, one concept in media remains the same: Live content is king. Traditional broadcasters have unrivalled experience creating outstanding content that stands the test of time. Although newer technology companies are investing heavily in content acquisition and live sports broadcasting rights deals, decades-old broadcast networks have a deep understanding of how to create, manage, and deliver the biggest live events. Just this summer across key events like the European Football Championship and the 2024 Paris Olympics, major national broadcasters delivered exceptional sports broadcasting innovation across challenging environments. NBCUniversal attracted record audiences of over 30 million across its platforms — an 82% increase in viewership compared to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics — delivering the most-streamed Olympics of all time.
The biggest media companies in the world understand the value of live content, and they know how to bring it to audiences via tailored experiences across all platforms. The proportional value of ad revenue driven by live content far outweighs the total amount of hours that live content accounts for across all viewing platforms. While live sports and news remain key to retaining traditional linear audiences and protecting ad revenues, the value of connected TV (CTV) advertising continues to surge. eMarketer predicts that US CTV ad spend will grow almost 19% this year, with a significant proportion of that coming from reallocated linear TV spend.
So, delivering more live content to all platforms has never been more important. To do that, content owners need ways to originate, customize, monetize, and distribute more feeds at an unprecedented scale. Take LTN’s work with Spanish-language media leader TelevisaUnivision, for example. The major media organization opted for a more agile and cost-effective approach to customizing and delivering thousands of live soccer matches from around the world for streaming audiences on its new ViX platform. Instead of investing heavily in additional live event master control or technical operational center resources, it partnered with LTN to scale its operational capabilities based on evolving demand, enabling customized, language-tailored live event experiences for dedicated and growing digital audiences.
Maximize monetization across live events and linear channels
Enabling faster time to revenue is critical in a competitive marketplace with eye-watering rights costs. Sidestepping the long, expensive, complex process of building and running your own infrastructure to deliver valuable live content makes sense from both business and technological vantage points. The LTN Network makes live workflows simple and challenges outdated mentalities around best efforts in reliability. LTN delivers SLA-backed solutions that solve big-picture problems and underpin mission-critical sports broadcasting workflows — with deep visibility and intelligent monitoring that puts you in greater control over your content and data, across any platform or geography.
An intelligent IP video distribution foundation empowers an entire ecosystem of interconnected technologies that drive limitless customization potential, targeted advertising, and multi-platform global distribution capabilities. Doing more with less starts with embracing an IP-first future.
Sign up for a demo to see what LTN can do for you.